Underground Unleashed
by Stella Stargaze
Summary: It's been a while since everything was like this. Everything seemed great. My sibs were back, my friends didn't seem bothered by the whole royalty thing, and I was running, like I always do. But that usually means everything is about to go south. (Sonic Underground. Sequel to Ground X)
1. Thoughts

**Hey guys! I thought I'd be nice and post the first chapter of the sequel for Ground X! I have a few chapters ready so I thought I'd give you this little bit as something to chew on until I get the other chapters ready. I'm not sure how long it will take. Maybe around a week, maybe a bit more. You really won't have to wait too long for the rest though.**

**And to any new comers to this story. THIS IS A SEQUEL. Go to my profile and find the story Ground X. Read it. Come back. That is all. :)**

The vibrant green grass shone with dew against the morning sun. The flowers leaning back and forth at the weight. Small critters stirring in their nests, waking up for the rest of the day.

They were definitely about to wake up. A flash of blue rushed through the fields, disturbing the peace in a split second.

The blur had been running all morning. Thinking. It had been a few weeks since their whole adventure with Randell and a lot had happened.

He had gone to visit Robotropilis a few times since then. There had been a lot of damage done to the city and the Freedom Fighters took advantage of that. At first they thought that they should try and clean it up, but with so many Swatbots patrolling the area they decided it would probably be better to just try and destroy as many factories as possible and there were even some missions to steal information from the base.

Sonic had helped out with a lot of the factory mission and some of the base invasions. He had even set a record for most factories destroyed in a day.

And everyone in the, now appointed, unknown land was coping well with the big royalty thing. They hadn't told GUN or the public since they thought they might start treating him weird. Of course they might not even believe them in the first place.

Tails had set the communicators to call Robotropilis so they could talk to Sonia and Manic without having to chaos control there. He also made more of them for all their friends so Amy wouldn't have to hammer Knuckles to call.

The blue blur slowed down as he came up to a small drop off near Station Square. The hedgehog looked out over the city, leaning against a tree growing next to him.

"Life has been pretty good since that adventure."

The image of Randell as his hood flew back flashed into his mind. The image of Dark Gaia.

At least he thought it was him. Remembering back, he noticed the small differences between the two. Randell had a few less eyes than Dark Gaia had when he had faced him. Still too many though.

And the head seemed a bit too small for Dark Gaia. It wasn't as wide as it should have been. Also if he remembered right Dark Gaia's head was way too big for its body, but Randell's seemed to fit just right.

Not to mention he had intelligence. Dark Gaia couldn't communicate aside from his roars and shrieks when fighting. Randell would come in on a regular basis when he was captured to talk with him.

The dark being's counterpart rose into his thoughts. Light Gaia, or as he knew him, Chip.

He had met him when he fell from Eggman's base in space (as many of them are). Sonic had just been turned into the werehog for the first time so he had startled Chip quite a bit. Once he had gotten him to calm down he learned that Chip had lost his memory. At first he had thought he had fallen on him but that proved not to be the case a bit later.

Chip had started to tag along with Sonic while they discovered what was going on with the planet. They met up with Tails who brought them to Professor Pickle, who was an expert on the Gaia Manuscripts. They explained what was happening with the planet.

Every thousand years both Dark Gaia and Light Gaia awaken from their long slumbers. Dark Gaia tries to destroy the world while Light Gaia stops him using temples where he puts the chaos emeralds. After Dark Gaia had been put to sleep again they would start the process over.

He and Chip went from one temple to another to try and restore the planet. At one of them Chip went up to a carving in the wall and it sort of sucked him in. When he came out he said that he had his memory back. That he was Light Gaia.

Afterward they put the last emerald in the temple and Eggman came at them. The battle eventually reached the center of the planet where Dark Gaia was. He was almost complete but the last part of himself was inside Sonic. His werehog form was a part of Dark Gaia.

He didn't remember everything that happened after they defeated the dark being. He remembered falling. Again. And in the same spot as when he first fell. Chip was there again too. Sort of.

When he reached out to him he started to fade. When he was completely gone, all that was left was a bracelet with a green bauble on the end.

"I'll never forget you. I'll be here by you always. A part of the earth you tread."

And he would never either. It would be kind of hard any way.

Becoming the werehog was just… weird for him. It was hard to put into words but it was just unnatural.

But he might have to tell his sibling about it soon if it meant anything at all. Randell looking like Dark Gaia might not mean anything at all. Or it could be everything. With his luck, it would lead to big trouble. It always did. And it probably always will.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to do that though. He knew he promised to tell them everything, but he was thinking of saving this story for last. He knew they would probably worry about it. And he didn't really blame them.

He always felt so awkward when he was in that form. It was like being a completely different person. He didn't even have all of his speed. He had the power for his arms to stretch and he was good at throwing punches but it just wasn't him.

Sonic sighed and closed his eyes. This was a bit too much to think about first thing in the morning.

"Well, it's not like I'll have to go through that again."


	2. A strange energy

**Yeah, I had no patience either. I know it's been less than a week but I already had a few more chapters so I decided to post this. Enjoy the Sonic patience!**

**Christian Wolf99: Sorry but not in the story. Another perhaps but not this one. )**

**pokegirl2: Yes Sonic, have fun. *evil smile* **

**TeamChaosHunters: Everything always goes perfectly smooth for the Sonic Team! ;)**

**Kariko-chan: I'm playing through the xbox version and I can't get past the stupid air level. Eventually me and my friends started just yelling out the names of the buttons while someone focused on pushing the buttons!**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: Do you not have confidence in me Manic?**

**Manic: *blushes* Ummmm...**

**Stella: *Laughs so much she falls on floor***

**RaphealplusMikey: I thought your name looked familiar! I read that story a while back. It's pretty good! You shuld keep updating it! And I'm not putting this in the crossover section because most of the time people look in the Sonic area for everything including the shows. This just makes it easier for people to find.**

**R&R PLEASE! Enjoy!**

It had been a boring week in Robotropilis. They had taken out ten factories in the past five days and it was starting to lose its charm. Sleet and Dingo had been busy with the reconstruction from the battle between Sonic and Randell, so they weren't hunting for the hedgehogs. Sonic hadn't called in a few days either. Absolutely nothing was happening.

The two hedgehogs were sitting around their hideout, bored. Sonia was sitting in front of the mirror, messing with her hair. She kept mumbling about different styles she should try and what she thought might or might not work.

Manic was just lying on the couch, beating his drumsticks on the side. He kept changing rhythm every once and a while. From some of the old songs they used to sing to the new ones he heard from Sonic.

The computer to the side of the room flickered to life, attracting the attention of the two bored hedgehogs. The screen flashed to an image of Cyrus, "Guys? You there?"

"We're here Cyrus," Sonia left her seat and walked over to the monitor, "Hey what do you think of me braiding a small section of my hair and then-"

"Um… Sonia," Cyrus interrupted, "Not to sound rude but you should probably take that to Mindy."

Manic came up behind his sister, "What's up Cy?"

"Do you guys mind coming down here?"

"Sure. No prob. We were getting' bored anyway." Manic stretched his arm behind his head, working out the cramps from sitting on the couch for so long, "Why you need us?"

"You'll see. Just hurry okay?" Cyrus's face disappeared as he disconnected from the call.

"Wonder what that was about." Sonia said, heading toward the garage, eager to have something to do.

"Don't know." Manic followed her, having to run the first few feet to catch up, "Maybe he found something in that info we swiped from buttnik's base."

"Maybe. Let's go find out. If it's big enough we might be able to brag to Sonic."

A few minutes later they walked into Freedom HQ, going straight to Cyrus.

"Yo Cy. What's up?" Cyrus looked up at the green hedgehog at the sound of his voice.

"There you guys are. Come over here."

Sonia sat in the chair next to the lion, "Why did you need to call us in?"

"Here I'll show you," Cyrus started taping at his keyboard, bringing up a model of the planet with a chart next to it.

"What's this?"

"My scanners picked up these weird energy fluctuations at the center of the planet." He pointed at the center of the model, "I'm not sure what it is but some of it seems to be pushing at the planet's crust."

"Hmmm…." Sonia stared intently at the screen for several seconds before speaking, "Think we should call Sonic and tell him?"

"No. Let's wait," Cyrus said, reading over his data again.

"Why?" Manic looked at the loin with one eyebrow arched and his mouth shaped like an o, clearly confused, "Shouldn't he know about this?"

"I want to run some more tests first. We don't know what exactly is happening so telling him now might just panic him. Once we have enough data then I think it'll be fine."

"Alright," Manic still didn't sound sure but agreed. He didn't want to get his brother panicked over nothing.

At least what he hoped was nothing.

* * *

Sonic walked back into his house, his mind still feeling jumbled from his thoughts, earlier. It cleared up though when he saw his best friend and adopted little brother, Tails, dragging a large machine part into the hanger. It was long and black with different colored wires going across it and hanging out. It was right about the height of the young mechanic.

"Need some help?"

The fox looked over the machine, smiling at the sight of his older brother, "Yeah, thanks."

Sonic grabbed the other side of the gadget and the two lifted it up off the ground. They scurried to the stairs, cautious not to fall or drop the part. Tails directed him to put it down next to the Tornado Two, the blue and yellow bi-plane Tails had made himself during their adventure with Chaos.

When he placed the part on the ground, Sonic leaned against it, "So, what is this thing anyway?"

"It's an add on for the engine," he explained, "If it works, not only will it run on a chaos emerald, but whenever Eggman tries to shootout the engines, the energy of the shot will be absorbed and will help to power the plane. I'm still working on spreading the range on the shot absorber to the rest of the plane but this is a good start."

"Wow." There wasn't much else he could say. That was pretty impressive. "Only you could make something as cool as that."

Tails's face turned pink as he smiled up at the hedgehog.

However his attention was dragged to his communicator as it buzzed at him. He pressed the small green answer button on the keypad and Knuckles's face appeared on the small screen. "Hey Knuckles. What's up?"

The echidna's face was serious as he looked back through the monitor. "I need you guys to come up here. Now."

"What's wrong?" Sonic looked over Tails's shoulder to talk to distressed guardian. "Why do you need us?"

"I'm not exactly sure what's happening but the master emerald is acting really weird. I would handle it myself, but I have no clue what to do. I don't even know what's going on." Knuckles looked behind him, checking the sacred relic.

"Alright Knux. We're on our way." Sonic ran up to the Tornado Two and turned to back to Tails tapping his foot.

The fox rolled his eyes, "Be right there." He hung up the call and jumped into the pilot's seat.

"Good thing you didn't start those modifications yet, 'cause we need to move."

* * *

Darkness ended as his eyes fluttered open reveling a place he hadn't seen for quite some time. But not quite enough time.

"A thousand years already?"


	3. Off to Spagonia

**Heeeeeelllllooooooo. These have been fast updates, I know. But I've just been so far ahead on my writing! And you guys are just so awesome that I have to post. Keep the review comin guys!**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: PARTY! *starts dancing around* EVERYBODY SUPER SONIC RACIN! GOTTA KEEP YOUR FEET RIGHT OFF THE GROUND! **

**Kariko-chan: You will soon know... maybe. *Halo appears* **

**Great. So I have a super hard water level to look forward to? :'(**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: I know insane. Don't worry though. He shouldn't be able to do much damage after that fight with Sonic. **

**Manic: How did he even fight him if he was at pinkie pie's?**

**Stella: *Shrugs***

**RaphalaelplusMikey: I'm about to drop a lot more hints too. ;) And updates, yay! (I'm fangirling in my own story...)**

**TeamChaosHunters: I'm not the only one who day dream like that? AWESOME! **

The tornado smoothly landed next to the ancient shrine as Knuckles ran down the stairs to greet the two.

"That was fast."

Sonic stood with his hands on his hips and a broad smile on his face as he gazed at the echidna, "What else did you expect?"

The guardian gave a small chuckle then motioned to the shrine, "Same as always I see. Come on. I'll show you what's going on."

He started up the stairs with hedgehog and twin tailed fox behind him. As they got closer they could see Knuckles start to tense up. 'The two are connected,' Sonic thought as he worriedly watched the back of his head, 'If he's feeling like this then I understand why he called us up.'

He didn't even know the half of it. When they reached the top the two stopped in their tracks at the sight of the emerald. Light was flashing from it, and not just its normal green. The light kept switching colors. One moment it was a white that could blind if looked at it for too long, the next it was a deep black hinted with dark shade of purple, and it was back to green again.

"It just started to do this randomly," Knuckles burst, staring at the relic, "I have no clue what to do."

Tails put a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him while Sonic cautiously approached the emerald. It had turned black again and had stayed that way for a few seconds.

The hedgehog slowly reached out and touched the emerald. At once his head started to swim. He felt as if he was getting bigger, his gloves ripping apart, his arms growing to more than half their usual size, and he felt fangs coming into his mouth. A dark essence flowing through him. He was feeling the sensation of becoming the werehog.

He quickly stumbled back from the emerald, holding his head. As he got his bearings he looked down at his body, afraid of what he might see. Luckily for him, he still had his light blue fur, his gloves were intact and he was his normal size.

"Sonic?"

The hedgehog looked over to his friends at the sound of his name. They were both gazing at him with very worried expressions. He must have looked pretty bad when he touched it.

"I'm fine guys." His attention turned back to the emerald as it changed color once again. This time to white. 'I wonder.'

He walked back up to the emerald, despite the small sound of protest coming from Tails, and once again placed his hand onto the master emerald. This time however, nothing bad came to mind. Different images and feelings rushed through him. And they all involved Chip. He saw the two of them fighting over a dumpling, them relaxing on the beach drinking from coconuts, him getting bonked on the head by those coconuts, the first time the two met. Different memories flooded into him. All good. The opposite of when it had been black.

He calmly stepped away from the emerald, stopping the torrent of memories, and looked over to Tails and Knuckles. "Guys, we need to go to Spagonia."

"Huh?" the both looked surprised at the sudden statement, "Why?" Tails asked, worried still mixed with the surprise.

"I think whatever is happening with the master emerald might have something to do with Gaia."

This not only surprised them, but it also confused them. "Gaia?" Knuckles scratched the top of his head, something he always did when he tried to figure something out, "What does he have to do with this?"

"I'm not really sure," Sonic confessed, "Listen I'll explain more when we get there alright?"

The two nodded even though they obviously wanted to know more.

"What about the master emerald?" Knuckles asked, point to the relic, "I can't just leave it like this."

Sonic thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers, showing he had an idea. "Tails, you gave all of our friends communicators right?"

The fox nodded, "Yeah."

As Sonic reached down to his communicator he heard Knuckles in a very annoyed tone, "You better not be calling that bat girl."

"I'm not, I'm not." Sonic assured him as he clicked at his watch. When he found what he was looking for he pressed the call button and started talking into it, "Heeeelllooooo. Anybody home?"

"Hey there Sonic. What'ch ya need."

"You guys mind coming up here and watching the master emerald for Knux? I need to drag him down to the surface for a bit."

"What's the pay?"

"How 'bout the hundred rings you owe me?"

There was silence on the line for a few seconds before the voice spoke again, "You got yourself a deal. Let's move!"

"Roger."

"Whooooo."

The line cut dead and Sonic looked up to the guardian, "Their old friends of yours right?"

"Yeah…." Knuckles didn't look too sure about sending that team up to guard his emerald.

"Chill. I'm sure Espio will make sure they don't screw up. Now come on!" Sonic flashed down the stairs, stopping on top of the tornado's wings, "Let's get movin!"

* * *

This place was definitely weird. There was light surrounding him that went a few yards in front of him and behind that it looked like there was an entire galaxy.

He had been trying to find a way out for a while but just couldn't. This place was endless!

"At least I have my memory this time."

Last time he woke up it wasn't even supposed to happen. He had lost his memory and Dark Gaia had been broken apart.

Lucky for him he had met Sonic the Hedgehog when he woke up. Not only had the hedgehog helped him get his memory back, but he had also shown him the world that he had protected for thousands of years.

It had been so fun running around with him. Fighting off Eggman, meeting all of the people in the world. And the food was amazing!

Speaking of which, he was getting kind of hungry now…

"Where did I put that chocolate?"

* * *

Sonic gazed out at the top of the town. He remembered his first visit here. Chip had been instantly attracted to the ice cream. He didn't blame him though. It had been pretty good.

The landed near a windmill Sonic immediately recognized.

"Ouch." Knuckles looked at a deep hole in the ground. It didn't look like someone had dug it up though. It looked more like someone had gone splat from a very long way up, "That had to hurt."

"It did."

Knuckles whirled around to look at Sonic, "You did that?"

The hedgehog shrugged, jumping off of the wings, "Didn't mean to."

The echidna shook his head, he really shouldn't be surprised. "So who's this Professor Pickle again?" He asked, hopping out of his seat.

"He's a lead researcher on the Gaia Manuscripts." Tails informed him, as, he too, jumped out of his seat. "He helped us out when Eggman broke the planet apart waking Dark Gaia."

"Okay, so where do we fin-"

His question was cut short as the earth beneath them started shaking, causing all three to fall on the ground. Sonic landing in the hole he made during his first visit.

When it finally stopped, the three slowly rose up from the ground, ready in case another quake. When none came they finally relaxed.

'So he is back,' Sonic thought, staring into the sky.

"Wait a sec," Sonic squinted his eyes then opened them again, very wide, pointing up, "What is that?"

The two followed his finger to see multiple black lights streaking across the sky. If you could call them lights. It was more like they were sucking the very light around them, turning them to darkness.

As they watched, one arched away from the rest of the group. Right toward them.


	4. Go back to sleep

**S'up. Another fast update. Let's see how long I can keep this goin' shall we? ;)**

**ydshakid: The X is suppose to be like a combination of the name of the two shows Under****_ground_**** and Sonic ****_X_****. See?**

**TeamChaosHunters: OMC! We totally should! Who wants to join the FOF (fanfictions of fanfictions) club! And also, Procrastination! You're welcome.**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Sonic: *Facepalm***

**Stella: Why did you do that? **

**Kariko-chan: Yay! No drowning music! And yes Sonic. Don't touch the glowy things.**

**Christian Ape99: IDK. Who would fit his personality anyway?**

The impact hit him hard. He tumbled back several feet before he finally stopped, laying on his back. His head was swimming and for several seconds the bright mid-day sky had stars floating in it.

"Sonic!" the hedgehog looked up to the fox yelling his name, "Sonic are you okay? What the chaos was that thing?"

Sonic struggled to sit up, Tails helping him when he reached the hedgehog, "I'm fine Tails. Just a bit dizzy." Okay, he was a bit more than dizzy but Tails really didn't need to hear that. "As for what that was…"

He looked up to the sky where the dark lights had appeared. They were gone now, but that just worried him more. If they were what he thought they were…

"Come on. We need to get to Prof Prickle, ASAP."

He tried standing, but almost fell down again in the effort. Luckily Tails was there to keep him steady. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Another wave of dizziness. No biggy." The communicator on his wrist started beeping at him as he finally steadied himself and when he looked down he saw the icon for his sister pop up. He pushed the answer button, prepared for what his sister was about to tell him. "Yo Sis. What's up?"

"What's up?" oh boy, "What's up is the entire planet having a simultaneous earthquake. You had to feel it. It was huge over here!"

"Chill Sonia." Sonic gave a sigh of relief at his brother's voice in the background, "You're gonna talk his ears off before we can tell him what we found."

"Right." She took a deep breath, clearing her thoughts, "Earlier Cyrus called us down to look at some data he found. Apparently there's the huge energy in the middle of the planet that's pushing against the crust. We think that might be what caused the huge planet wide quake."

Sonic looked up to his two friends, who both nodded, giving him knowing looks. "Don't worry Sis. We're lookin' into it right now. I've actually gotta go though. Call ya' later."

Seeing his sister about to protest he quickly ended the call. "Let's get movin guys."

With that, he ran off toward the town, his friends following right behind him.

* * *

Sonia and Manic stood staring at the communicator for a few seconds, completely baffled at Sonic's behavior. Something was definitely wrong. But they would have to figure it out later. Right now they had to find the cause of that quake.

"Cyrus, have you found any more information on that energy in the planet?" Sonia asked, walking over to the computer Cyrus was sitting at.

"Some." He emphasized, "That earthquake seemed to come close to breaking the entire planet apart. Some of the energy seems to have escaped when it hit. It disappeared from the radar quickly though. But here's the interesting thing," he typed some on his keyboard, bringing up another graph in the corner, "I found another energy source similar to it. It's not similar in many ways though. Almost everything about it is the exact opposite to the energy in the planet."

"Really?" Manic leaned down to get a better look at the computer screen, "Do you know where it is?"

"No," Cyrus replied, slightly disappointed, "I just know it's there. The quake messed with some of the readings. It might take some time but I might be able to locate it as long as another quake doesn't strike."

"So that means another is coming, right?"

"Probably."

* * *

"Professor Pickle?" Tails slowly opened the door into his office, "Are you in?"

"Ah, Tails. Very good to see you." The three walked into the office as they heard the answer.

The office seemed to be surprisingly intact for having gone through an earthquake. There were lots of books and such scattered on the floor but all of the bookcases were still upright and nothing seemed broken.

"Hello professor. You can probably guess we're here."

"Yes. It seems Dark Gaia is acting up again." He had been turned away from them, sorting though some books, but now turned to face them, "Who's the red chap with you?"

"Oh, right! Sorry. This is our friend Knuckles." Tails motioned to the echidna, who simply nodded in greeting.

"Pleasure to meet you. Now back to business," he turned back to the shelf he had been sorting through.

"Right," Sonic said, slightly confused by the professor's action, "Well, today we went up to Angel Island, where Knuckles lives, and the master emerald was acting weird. It kept changing colors from black, to white, and back to green. When I touched it while it was black I felt the same sensation that I did when I transformed into the werehog." He saw Tails's eye grow before showing sadness though the corner of his eye. 'He must realize how awkward I felt as werehog.'

"And when it was white I had flashes of my time with Chip," he continued, taking his head out of his thoughts, "Then after the quake these weird dark light things shot into the air and one of them hit me. I think it might have been the same type of stuff that made me transform into werehog in the first place." 'So much for never having to go through that again.' "So do you think you can help us out any?"

"I believe I can." The professor turned back to the three holding two documents in his hands, "Take a look at these."

"What are they?" Tails asked, leaning over the worn paper.

"They're lost pieces of the Gaia Manuscripts." Tails looked up in surprise at him, then quickly back down to the manuscripts.

The one he was looking at depicted a large emerald split into three different colors. To the left black, in the middle was green, and on the right was white. Just like the master emerald. There were different writings around it that they couldn't read, but they could guess what they were saying. They were describing the strange behavior of the master emerald.

Next Pickle laid out a piece with what looked like a person going to wake up Gaia. At first Sonic thought they might have been predicting the future but quickly disregarded the idea. The guy they showed was way too skinny to be Eggman. So who could it be?

"I predict that with the information from these documents, that it might be time for Gaia to awaken." Professor Pickle stared down at the two documents thoughtfully.

"But- but that can't be!" Tails started pacing in a small circle, his hand going through his bangs, "It hasn't nearly been a thousand years yet! That's when he's supposed to wake up."

Sonic put a hand on his shoulder to calm him as the professor explained further, "This document showing the man waking Gaia suggests that they might not wake themselves up every thousand years, but that someone or something comes to wake them up. Perhaps Eggman just woke them not too long before they were already set to awaken."

"And the emerald one supports that," Tails mumbled to himself.

The room started shaking as they stood there, landing them all on their behinds. Except Sonic. He face planted onto the floor. "Another one?"

"This one feels a lot worse than the last one!" Tails yelled through the sound of the crashing books, documents, and even one of the bookshelf.

Sonic put a protective arm over the fox to try and shield him from more of the debris. "And longer! What's going on?"

Tails pulled out his Miles Electric, pushing multiple buttons and taping different icons on the screen. When he found what he was looking for his eyes widened to twice their size.

"The planet's broken apart again!"

**And on that bombshell (And major mood breaker)... Stay tuned!**


	5. Broken again

**OOOh! I'm starting to catch up to my writing. Schedule is making sure of that. ;) Regular updates may coming soon. But not just yet.**

**And I totally think we should start FoF club! Me and TeamChaosHunters (MoonTheUltimateLifeform) are the founders and if you can PM or just put it in the reviews and I'll start a list on my profile so that copy n' paste onto your profile. Sound good to everyone!? ;) **

**TeamChaosHunters: And it begins! And you are superior! Are you happy? Oh, and puns. You just had to make the pun.**

**Eggman hater: How are you so good at guessing?!**

**ydshahid: Heh he. Sorry. I spelled it right this time!**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: Lasers? Really?**

** Sonic: And the bucket? Come on! That's nasty!**

** Stella: _That's _what's disturbing you right now?**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: Reasons? You know what? Never mind. I'm scared of the reply. (You are about to be a very happy hedgefox)**

**Kariko-chan: Of course she's gonna be mad. But it should be funny. (That's sounds really mean now that I read that over)**

**Luna FireFox: To google! About six I think. Maybe more.**

The ground finally stopped shaking, causing everything to go silent. The four stood up, brushing dust and small pieces of debris of themselves.

"Everyone okay?" Sonic called out.

"Alright over here."

"I'm fine."

Sonic looked over to Tails when he stayed silent. "Tails?"

The fox looked up to his big brother, "I'm fine Sonic."

Of course Sonic noticed it right away, "Then why are you holding your tail?"

The fox looked down at the said tail. "Something might have landed on it." He looked away from the hedgehog, his cheeks tinting slightly pink.

"Tails." Sonic shook his head, bending down to examine the injured tail. "It doesn't look too bad. Just don't fly with it for a bit, okay?"

"Alright Sonic." He still wasn't looking into the hedgehog's eyes.

Sonic sighed, then looked down at his wrist ass his communicator started to go off. "Wonder who that is." He said sarcastically before answering.

He slightly held his wrist out as the sound came on, "Sonic! Are you there? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Sis. Aside from the broken eardrum." He added under his breath.

"Heard that."

Manic stepped into the picture, taking over for Sonia, "That quake was way bigger. And Cyrus says that it broke the planet apart!"

"Yeah, it did." Sonic answered, "Listen, we know what going on. You guys should probably head over here. I've got some stuff I need to do so I'll send Shadow to get you guys."

"You sure he actually will?"

"I'll convince him. See you later." He hung up, ignoring the starts of protests from his siblings.

"Sonic," Tails walked up beside the hedgehog, "What's wrong?"

"I don't want them to see me transform," he answered, "I'm certain now that that weird light thing was Gaia's energy. I don't want to scare them."

Tails moved in front of Sonic so that the blue blur would have to look at him, wearing a small smile, "I wasn't scared when I saw you. I knew it was you when I saw you."

Sonic simply sighed then left the room to call Shadow, leaving a worried fox standing in the middle of the room, watching him go.

* * *

Manic sat in the open doorway of their van, twirling his drum sticks around in the air. His sister pacing in front of him as they waited for Shadow.

"Something's wrong. Sonic was acting really weird when we called." She stated, finally stopping in her circle.

"Yeah. And it got worse the second time. What's goin' on?" the green hedgehog stuck his sticks in an inside pocket of his orange vest. "He sounded really distant."

"So what is it that is gnawing at him?" Sonic covered her eyes with her arms in frustration, "Argh! We'll just ask him when we get there!"

"Speaking of which where's-"

A flash of light interrupted his question as a certain black and red hedgehog appeared in the room. "Come on."

"So polite." Sonia whispered under her breath as she walked toward Shadow.

When both hedgehogs were close enough Shadow held up the red chaos he had brought, "Chaos Control!"

The two closed their eyes as the bright light enveloped them. When the light passed they squinted them open to reveal a town full of tall white buildings with orange roofs and brick streets with different vender carts dotted along it every few feet.

"Wow. This place is beautiful." Sonia took an awestruck step forward with her brother right beside her. "So where do we go to find-"she turned around to address Shadow, but the hedgehog was already gone. "Great."

"Come on Sis. We can walk around here, we'll find it eventually. I don't think bro will mind if we look around a bit." Manic walked ahead of her, gazing around at the settings.

Sonia ran up to catch up to the green hedgehog, "Sounds good to me. I hope it wasn't all destroyed in the quake."

"Actually it looks pretty intact. Maybe they've been through something like this before." He chuckled at the thought. There'd never been any quakes like this before. All he remembered was some small ones hitting Robotropilis along with the ones he created himself with his drums. Nothing major.

"Hey look! Ice cream!" Sonia ran ahead toward a small cart with a plump man wearing a small hat and apron, scooping ice cream into a cone.

"Hey! Wait up!" Manic yelled as he chased after his sister.

As she came up to the stand the man scooping ice cream looked up and smiled at her, "Well hi there girly. You wantin some of my special chocolate chipped cream sundae supreme?"

"Yes please." She smirked at her brother as he came up panting next to her, "And one for my brother as well."

"You got it." He made two cones with expert craftsmanship, giving a flourish as he added the last topping on Sonia's cone, "Here ya are. Two sundae supremes. Enjoy 'em!"

"Thank you," Sonia cheerfully traded the cone, giving him the money for the cost.

The two walked away, gleefully licking at the sweet treats.

"They're acting pretty normal for just being through the planet breaking apart," Manic speculated between licks.

"At least they're not panicking," Sonia walked up to a round balcony looking over the ocean. "But it is kind of weird."

"Who knows what's goin' on here." Manic leaned against the railing closest to the sea.

"Sonic does." Sonia rested he chin in her hand next to him, looking out into the sea. "We just need him to tell us. Maybe it has something with his weird behavior."

Manic sighed, gazing at the setting sun. Then something caught his eye. It looked like the shadows were moving.

* * *

Sonic watched out the window as the sun started sinking beneath the horizon, bracing himself for what he knew would come. "Moment of truth."

When the sunlight disappeared he felt a strange energy build in him. It started spreading, slowly at first but soon started to quicken to the rest of his body. He grunted as a small pain entered as well. He could feel himself growing. His gloves ripping, his fangs growing, there was no denying it now…

He opened his eyes and looked down at himself. He saw the darker fur, the spiked shoes, the claws, he was in his werehog form. And that meant…

"Dark Gaia really is back."


	6. Night fallen

**SCHOOL'S OUT! SUMMERTIME IS FINALLY HERE! Summer! I can sleep again. ANd write and draw and do a bunch of other stuff! And it also means conventions and... this has nothing to do with the story... right. **

**SkyeTheHedgefox: Stella: Don't worry Sonic. It'll be fine.**

**Sonic: Yeah right.**

**Stella: Alright, alright. You can at least survive until she falls asleep again.**

**Eggman hater: Stella: Don't worry, I got this. *Teleports* S'up Sonic?**

**Sonic: Stella? What'ch ya doin here?**

**Stella: Nothin' much. Hear you've been having probs tellin your sibs 'bout you're situation here.**

**Sonic: ... Maybe.**

**TeamChaosHunter: Yes. let us rule the worl- internet! Mwa hahahahahaha!**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: *Facepalm* Oh boy. Manic just use your medallion. Insane better have not taken it. *Accusing stare***

Manic stared the spot of movement for seconds longer. When he was about to look away it moved again. Faster.

"Sonia."

The hedgehog looked over to her brother, finishing off her cone. But at see his tense stance, became alert. "What's wrong?"

"I saw something move. It looked like it was stalking us or something." He darted his eyes around, trying to find the movement once again.

Sonia reached up to her neck, touching her medallion and producing her keyboard laser gun. "You sure?"

"Positive."

The two's ear darted up as a sound from the distance caught their attention. It sounded like the people were crying out from… sorrow. What had happened to all the happy people that had been there minutes ago?

They didn't have time to investigate however because a the shadow Manic had seen jumped out in front of them, making the hedgehogs yelp in surprise.

It stood on two legs with its arms hanging close to the ground. It didn't look like it had a mouth but there were two large eyes at the top of its face. But the most interesting thing was that it had strange neon marks running all along it.

And apparently, it had friends.

* * *

Sonic was pacing around the office, at normal speed thanks to his form. It was clear he was thinking about a lot of things. It was probably the most he's ever thought in a while.

"Sonic, relax," his little brother pleaded, "What's bothering you so much?"

"It's Sonia and Manic," he said in a deeper voice than usual. Another trademark of his werehog form. "If he really is back wouldn't that mean that those small creatures would be too?"

"Well, they were made from Dark Gaia's energy. But that was when he had been broken apart from being awakened. But it has been less than a thousand years so he might have broken again." Tails gave an irritated sigh and fell back into one of the chairs they had set back upright.

Sonic gave a short chuckle at the fox's frustration. He smiled back. It was the first time he had seen him smile since they got here.

"Let's go out and look for them. Shadow probably left right after he dropped them off anyway. They must be pretty lost by now." Knuckles spoke up.

"Sure. Might as well get this over with anyway," Sonic looked down at his body, thinking about how his siblings would react to something like this.

"Actually Sonic. Would you mind staying behind?" Professor Pickle came up to stand next to the werehog, "There's something I feel I must show you."

"Uh, I guess," he looked over to his two friends, silently asking for their confirmation that they would go without him.

"We'll find them Sonic. Don't worry." Tails hopped up from his seat, running over to the door where Knuckles was standing.

"See you later True Blue."

"You too Rad Red."

Professor Pickle led him to another hall as he watched his friends ran out to go find his brother and sister.

* * *

"Hey Knuckles."

The echidna looked back at the fox from his spot a few feet away. They had been out for about ten minutes now and they hadn't even found any people around.

"What's up?"

The fox scratched behind his ear, his cheeks taking a slight pink color. "Do you think Sonic will be okay?"

"He'll be fine kid. He's gone through this before."

"That's not what I mean."

The guardian only stared at him for a few moments. The kit was looking down at his tail. "He's fine Tails. He's just stressed right now. He's had a lot of stuff thrown at him today."

Knuckles had actually been very surprised when he had transformed. Of course they had told him about what happened, but still seeing it himself... He had stood frozen, his mouth hanging open until the werehog had looked over. Then he quickly looked over to the manuscripts on the table.

"Yeah I guess so." He didn't seem completely convinced but was still somewhat better.

Loud cries interrupted the two coming from the seaside sidewalk. They silently nodded at each other, knowing the other was thinking the same, and ran toward the sounds.

When they got close to the cries Tails skidded to a stop, confusing Knuckles, "Tails! What are you doing?"

"It's Sonia and Manic!" he replied before dashing off in a completely different direction than where they were going.

Frustrated, the echidna followed, "Tails!" His frustration disappeared though when he actually saw the two.

They were almost completely surrounded by the Gaia beings. The only side they weren't on was the one facing the ocean. There was a discarded ice cream cone near the railing as well.

Tails was standing beside the guardian and surprised him when he spoke, "You distract those creatures, and I'll grab Sonia and Manic and call you back."

"Sounds good to me," Knuckles threw a closed fist into his open palm, smirking.

"Go!"

Knuckles rushed into the middle of the monsters, scattering them, while Tails ran over to the two hedgehogs.

"Tails! Knuckles!" Sonia was practically jumping for joy.

"Hey guys. How's it goin'?" Tails kept an eye on the battle.

"Not bad. You know, aside from the tons of monsters attacking us." Manic seemed very relaxed despite the situation.

"Come on. We need to go." Tails started to pull them away from the action, "Knuckles can't keep them busy forever."

Manic looked over to where the echidna was fighting, "Looks like he's doin' fine to me."

He had just taken out five of them by swinging one around him. Many of them were keeping their distance, eyeing him. Some were even cowering.

"Yeah but there are plenty more where they came from." The fox started to tug at the two's arms harder, "We need to move."

"Alright. Alright." Sonia ran along with the kitsune, dragging her brother with her, "Where's Sonic?"

"He's talking with a friend of mine. We'll explain later, okay?"

"Got it," Manic looked back at the creatures, "We gonna get Knuckles?"

"Dang. Almost forgot." Tails turned scarlet as he turned to the battle, "Knux! Let's go!"

"Finally." The echidna muttered before pursuing Tails and the others back to the university.

* * *

Sonic followed Professor Pickle down the hall, still feeling the soreness of transforming. He had gotten used to it when he had first started transforming nightly. But after so long of not doing it.

And he had Chip to help distract him. Wait a minute… "If Dark Gaia is back, then that means Chip should be waking up too!"

"That's correct Sonic."

"Maybe we can find him later. Where're you taking me anyway?" That attention span.

"There's one more piece of the Gaia Manuscripts that we have recovered lately." He told him, "I keep it in a special room for safe keeping."

"Um. That sounds more like something for Tails."

"I believe this will be of more interest to you." The werehog didn't answer, though he did give a confused look to the professor. "Ah, here we are." They came up to an old door that looked like it wasn't used very much and entered.

The room was full of bookscases. They were everywhere. Some were on the ground thanks to the recent earth shattering quake. Different books and assorted pages were scattered along with them.

Sonic walked around, looking at the damage while Professor Pickle sorted through the books and scrolls of one of the upright shelves. "Here it is." He took out an old worn scroll and handed it to Sonic, "Take a look."

Sonic rolled out the piece of paper in front of him, taking a good look. At the bottom of it a blue streak crossed the entire paper with something that resembled black smoke coming from it. Wait, it wasn't coming from it. It looked like something was surrounding the streak, protecting it from the black. At the top he saw a very familiar figure. Light Gaia, or Chip to Sonic, was curled into a ball sleeping. The green bulb he wore around his neck was glowing.

Sonic wasn't sure what any of this had to do with him though. Sure he was close to Chip but that was all he could think of that related it to him. The only things on the entire page were just Chip, the smoke, and the blue streak. Blue streak.

Sonic mentally face palmed himself. How had he not seen it? That blue streak was him while he was running. The black smoke must have been Dark Gaia.

But these documents were way old. There was no way they could have…

"Did- did they know I was coming? That I would be here. Fighting Dark Gaia."


	7. Secrets, magic, and voices

**We are back to normal update schedule. Sorry. I should have more time with summer here though. Except July. I might pass out after July. Anyway, enjoy!**** And... I posted the wrong document. I am officially embarrassed. Sorry everyone.**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: Uh. Skye. Put down the staff before you blow anything up please.**

**TeamChaosHunters: Pickle already ate today. He should start ranting about it soon. ;) Oh, and I freaked out when I saw it was your birthday. Luck is on our side! ...For the moment.**

**Eggman hater: Stella: Chill chill. I got this. *Small light bursts from necklace* There we go.**

**Sonic: Stella? Whatch' ya doin here kiddo.**

**Stella: I'm a year younger than you. Not five. -_-**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: For pete's sake *pulls out Manic plushie* go get it! *teleports it to different continent* **

**Sonic: Why do you have that?**

**Stella: Swiped it from her room.**

**Sonic: You've been hanging out with Manic too much.**

**Stella: *Bends down next to lock* Yeah yeah. Just give me one of your quills so I can pick the lock. *Picks it and opens door* *Covers eyes* Nope. Not looking at that. Sonic, go get your brother out of that.**

**UgunsGreka Fans: Eh. Maybe one day writing will be the confusing thing. Who knows. *Shrugs* Or maybe they just really liked drawing back then instead on writing. Either way.**

"How could they have known? Did they know? Or was this some freak coincident?"

It was an understatement to say that Sonic was freaking out a little. He was pacing in the room, due to his werehog form though, he did not make any marks on the floor.

"I do not know how they could have known Sonic," Professor Pickle told him from the other side of the room, "But I can clearly say that that is you in the picture. Along with Light Gaia."

Sonic sighed, moving his large clawed hand up to his head, "I'm going to look at it for a bit longer. Will you go check to see if the guys are back yet?"

"Of course." Pickle turned and walked out of the room, leaving Sonic staring at the document.

And they were indeed back, with Sonia and Manic as well. "Ah. So you are back. And I assume these are Sonic's siblings?"

"Sonia Hedgehog." The princess hedgehog curtsied to the professor.

"S'up. I'm Manic." He got elbowed in the side.

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Professor Pickle."

Tails walked up to him, slightly anxious as Manic noticed, "Professor, where did Sonic go?"

"He's in the room where I keep all my special documents," the man pointed down the hall toward the said room.

"Thanks," Tails disappeared as he quickly raced down the hall.

"Speaking of Sonic," Sonia sat down in a chair, looking at Knuckles, "Has Sonic been acting weird to you?"

"Yeah, he seemed really out of it when we called earlier," Manic joined, "What's up?"

"Well," there was a lot of hesitation in the echidna's voice, which worried Sonia and Manic, "Listen, what's going on, I can't tell you. It's something Sonic needs to say for himself."

The two nodded but Knuckles could see the confusion in their eyes.

* * *

Tails found him exactly where the Professor said he would be. Sitting in a room full of old scrolls and books, staring intently at one of the documents.

The fox glanced over the werehog's shoulder (Having to get on his tip toes to do it) to see the scroll, and almost fell down in surprise. Actually he did, tripping over one of the books on the ground.

"You okay buddy?" Sonic turned away from the tattered paper to look at his friend.

"I'm fine Sonic." He got up, brushing the dirt out of his fur. "Just a bit surprised. That document…"

"I know." He didn't need to hear the rest of his sentence to know what he was saying. "I just don't get it."

"Hmm. Well," Tails had that expression that said he was thinking real hard about something. And it was hard to get him out of that, "I've heard rumors that the people who made this lived in a time where magicians were real and could easily predict the future. That's how so many of them survived Dark Gaia's last attack. Er, the last before Eggman that is."

"Magic? Oh boy. Things are gettin' pretty weird all right." He yawned squeezing his eyes shut.

"How much sleep have you gotten?" Tails asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Hey, I've gone through this before. I'll be just fine." He didn't look him straight in the eye.

"You're avoiding my question."

"I'll be fine buddy. I didn't get that much last time either and I'm still functioning." Sonic was obviously trying his very best to brush it off, but he knew it wouldn't work.

"What about Sonia and Manic? They'll definitely notice you being so tired."

Sonic's ears flicked straight up and he looked directly into the fox's eyes, "You found them?"

"Yeah, they were being attacked by those monsters Gaia makes."

His ears went back down, "Are they okay? Man, I knew I should have come."

"They're fine Sonic." The kit assured him, "They're with Knuckles and Professor Pickle in his office."

"Good," he sighed in relief, but then tensed up once again, "How am I supposed to explain this?"

"They'll understand. If you don't, something like the Eggman being Robotnik argument might happen again."

The hero physically winced at the memory. "Yeah, I guess. It's a bit harder to hide this anyway." He indicated to himself.

The fox giggled quietly and started toward the door, "Come on, it's almost morning."

"Already?"

"Yep."

"It hasn't felt that long," the werehog speculated as he followed his friend, "Guess time really does fly."

"Nah. It's just been a long day."

Sonic chuckled along with Tails as they walked out of the room. They stopped however when they saw the light peeking through the windows to say hello.

Sonic felt the tingling again. This time it made him feel smaller. His arms going back to their normal size, his fangs receding. When he opened his eyes again he looked back down to see himself. The normal blue hedgehog who ran at the speed of sound of a normal basis. He was normal again.

"This is going to be fun."

When they entered the room Sonia and Manic slightly jumped by the sudden appearance. But they quickly ran up to their brother, Sonia hugging him tightly.

"Hey Sis. How's it goin'?" he managed through her grip.

Hearing his faintly strained voice she loosened her grip, "Pretty good, ya know, apart from the broken planet.

"Right. That might be a bit of a spoil." Sonic seemed to be back to himself. He was smiling and laughing like he always did.

But there were some differences. "Uh, bro. You look like you're gonna pass out."

At Manic's statement Sonia backed away from the blue hedgehog to view him better. He had dark circles under his eyes and his eyes looked kind of dead. Even his movements where slower than usual. "Sonic!"

"I'm fine guys!" he quickly told them, "I've just been pretty busy lately."

"How busy?"

"I don't think he's slept at all since yesterday."

"Tails!"

"Sonic!"

Sonic started rubbing the back of his head. "Uh. Yeah?"

Sonia squinted her eyes, giving him a death glare. Sonic gave his best effort not to flinch, but he was pretty sure he failed. What was it about her death stares that scared him half to death while his had her laugh?

"You're going to bed. Now."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. Come on." She turned her brother around and started pushing him.

"Hey!"

"She's right bro. You need to sleep."

"Yep. Professor is there any place he can go?"

"There's a room with a couch you shouldn't be disturbed in. Make a left and it should be a couple doors down."

"Thanks. Come on Sonic." Tails started pushing along with Sonia.

Sonic spun to the side to get out of the two's grip, "Alright! Alright! I'll take a nap! Sheesh!"

He ignored the grins they had on their faces as he left the room. 'I may be tired, but still. Sheesh!' He couldn't help but smiling though.

The smile vanished though as he reached the room.

A breeze rushed through the hall, a breeze that shouldn't be going through this building.

And a voice. A strange voice filled his ears. An evil voice.

"The vessel of my power."


	8. Courage

** What's up? It's late at night and I'm still writing. This shows how much I love you guys. Or how much I procrastinated. Either or.**

**Eggman hater: Wooooooooooow. I didn't even need to read that. There were so many blocked words that I guessed what you were trying to get across. the story may be rated K, but the reviews aren't. ;)**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: *evil grin* LET IT GO! LET IT GO! TURN AWAY AND SLAM THE DOOR!**

**Kariko-chan: Don't worry 'bout it. Sonic will never catch a break. Mostly because the people of fanfiction are evil and like to torment him and make him suffer. X)**

**TeamChaosHunters: Don't worry, Pickle will have his cucumber sandwiches. And you're welcome. ;)**

**iamthedoctoer480: Er... No. That's all I can say without spoilers. **

**insaneshadowfangirl: Sonic: Now what do we do? *Looks and Stella who in smiling evilly* What did you do?**

**Stella: *Pulls out drum medallion* Ta-da!**

**Sonic: You pick-pocketed her? You really are hanging with Manic too much.**

**Manic: You're complaining? *Snatches medallion and shakes down door***

**Stella: *dodges lasers and looks out door* I think we might have ruined her game **

** Review! It gets me off my lazy butt to write! Wait. I sit on my lazy butt to write. Oh, you know what I mean! REVIEW!**

He bolted straight up, panting. His heart was beat ten time faster than it should. Quickly he looked around; he knew it was just a dream but his instincts were keeping him on high alert.

It had taken awhile, but eventually he had been able to fall asleep like everyone had wanted him to. That voice he had heard hadn't helped matters. But somehow, it had seemed… familiar.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, he had wished he hadn't. All there had been was darkness. Endless black. He ran as fast as he could, trying to escape but it didn't do any good. The darkness stayed, trapping him.

He could hear voices yelling his name. All of his friends and family.

"Sonic!"

"Sonic!"

He even heard Chip. He tried to reach to them, tried to answer, but his voice was gone. Like it was been sucked up by the dark.

Then they all yelled at once…

"Come back to us! Wake up!"

And now he was here. Very awake and very shaken. The dream felt so real. Why had everyone been yelling at him? Why couldn't he answer? And what in chaos did they mean by 'wake up'?

Sonic dragged himself up, swaying slightly upon standing. He would have to figure this out later. Until then, he might not want to tell the others. Might as well not worry them.

When he made it back to the office the first thing he saw was Sonia and Professor Pickle eating some sandwiches. To the other side of the room the guys were arguing about extreme gear.

"Dude, I swear. It goes faster if you-"

"No it doesn't. I've tried it before. It did squat. Nothing."

"Well, maybe if the gear's thrusters were altered somehow then it might actually make a difference doing that."

"How?"

"Don't ask him that. Last time he tried to explain that stuff my head went spinning."

Tails started laughing at the memory. The others joined in as well which was when Tails noticed Sonic standing in the doorway. The fox eagerly motioned for him to come over.

"Hey guys," he greeted as he approached the group, "How's it goin'?"

"Hey there blue." Knux directed his attention from green to blue, "Your brother seems to think doing some weird trick makes you go faster. Tell him he's wrong." He switched his gaze back to the green hedgehog who simply rolled his eyes.

Sonic thought for a moment. The Knucklehead forgot to actually tell him what the trick was, but it clicked almost immediately. "Oh! I know which one you're talking about. It had something to do with sticking close to the ground so there's more proportion pushing against the ground?"

"Yep. That's the one." He sent a smirk over to the echidna. A smirk that switched places when he spoke again.

"Won't work with extreme gear."

"What?" Manic's head shot toward the hedgehog, his bangs flying everywhere, "You saw me do it!"

"With your hover board," Sonic made sure to emphasize the last words, "Extreme gear is a bit different. And before you try to say I haven't tried it," he added as he saw his brother start to protest, "I did. I tried it in one of my first races."

Chuckling softly at his brother's defeated expression, he turned to his best friend, "What time is it?"

"About noon."

"Noon?" the hedgehog asked, startled, "Felt more like minutes."

"You must have really been out." Knuckles speculated, still giving Manic a triumphant smirk.

"You must be hungry. Care for some cucumber sandwiches?" Professor Pickle called from his seat with Sonia.

"No thanks." The hedgehog politely declined, "Actually I was thinking about heading out. I can just get something in the city."

Before anyone could answer he rushed out the door, leaving only a blue trail and a gust of wind that didn't help the already messy room.

"I think I'll go with him." His words surprised the two hedgehogs left in the room. Knuckles however, could see the reasoning.

"Why's that, TT?" Manic asked, calling him by the nickname he had anointed for the two-tailed fox.

"I think I know what he's up to. I think he might need some help."

"And that is…?" Sonia prompted.

"He's looking for a friend of ours. We haven't seen him in a while though." The kitsune turned to the door, "I better head out or I'll never be able to catch him." He smiled, half-heartedly as the group noticed, "Later."

He zoomed out the door in pursuit of the blue blur, leaving a smaller mess behind than the previous.

"Uh." The two looked at Knuckles who simply shrugged. Of course, he knew what they were doing. He and Professor Pickle both. But he didn't let on that he knew. That was part of the story Sonic was going to tell. And he really shouldn't give them spoilers.

* * *

It took a bit to track down the blue hero, but he finally found him in a small plaza, sitting on one of the benches, his hand resting on his eyes. So when Tails came up to him, he jumped about five feet into the air, "You okay there Sonic?"

"Yeah," he replied upon landing, "Just tryin' to figure out where to start." He looked up, a quizzical look in his eyes, "You know what I'm talkin' about right?"

"Yep," he plobed down on the bench next to his older brother, "You're lookin' for Chip."

"On the money pal." Sonic leaned back, staring out into the clouds. "And I thought we'd never see him again."

"Me too." Tails agreed, "But our lives seem to like to prove us wrong a lot."

"Or try to kill us."

"Or tend to be very ironic."

"Our lives are a lot of things." The hedgehog laughed, breaking the streak of 'our lives seem to'. "I don't mind though. Keeps me from gettin' bored."

The kit laughed along with his friend. His life definitely was a lot of things, but boring was far from fitting the description.

He stopped however, when he noticed that Sonic had stopped laughing and was looking down into his lap, an unreadable expression painting his face. "That's not the only reason I'm out here." He mumbled.

"And what would be the other?" Tails questioned, although he felt he knew the answer.

"I'm building courage. I'm scared that they'll freak out or worry too much." A small smile formed, but much like the one Tails had given at the university, it was only half- hearted. "The biggest hero on Mobius, who rides on missiles like they were surfboards and mocks the man controlling a deadly machine tring to kill him, and even laughing at death itself, can't get the nerve to tell his brother and sister about some stupid transformation."

Tails stared at him for a moment. He was the only one who could get something like this out of the hedgehog. And he knew how to deal with it too. "It'll be fine Sonic. They'll understand." Sonic gave him a sidelong glance but said nothing. "They kept asking me about your weird behavior lately. They're as stubborn as you." He added, giving the hedgehog an accusing glare.

"Take that up with my parents not me." He chuckled, a real smile lighting his face. "It must run in the family." Tails simply rolled his eyes at his remark. "Alright I'll tell them." Tails's eyes darted from the sky back to Sonic, "I'll do it when we get back there. I did come out here to find Chip too."

Tails grinned himself. 'Guess my little pep talk really _did_ work.'

A couple hours later the two walked back into the office empty handed. The had looked at the windmill the two had first met at, the ice cream stand, and other places Sonic had run off to.

The three mobians were having a quiet conversation while the professor was nowhere to be seen.

Sonic waved at the two to catch they're attention and pointed out the door, indicating that he needed to talk to them. _Alone._

Sonic stood in the hallway waiting for them for a few seconds that felt like hours to him. He rapidly tapped on his communicator, a habit he had started when he was nervous or getting impatient but couldn't tap his foot.

Sonia appeared first, followed by Manic, both looking very worried. "What's up bro'?"

"There's something I need to tell you guys." He began. Not the best start, but it would have to do.

"We're all ears." Sonia's ears perked and she placed her hands behind her back, ready for what she predicted to be a very long story.

And she would've been right if there hadn't been a large boom outside followed by maniacal laughter. All too familiar maniacal laughter.

"You have got to be kidding me."


	9. The Egg-Griffin

**I'M ALIVE! Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. We had problems with word, then my keyboard broke then dog sitting then- *Passes out***

**Sonic: Oh boy. um... *Hold up sign that says "Technical difficulties. Please enjoy the chapter"***

**SkyeTheHedgefox: I have a better question.****_ Why_**** did you get that?**

**TeamChaosHunters: Senor (don't know how to do that thing above the n) Fluff takes a lot out of him. Tho I guess noon is kinda late. Hover boards and stuff is more for daredevils and really dumb kids. Or at least that who they were made for. They're entertaining, and fun if you don't kill yourself! And yes, Eggman always ruins it. As for your guess... just read the chapter. ;)**

**Eggman hater: The puns! Argh! Destroy the robot!**

**RaphaelplusMikey: Knives? Sorry, but... Robot? Metal? You're gonna break those knives.**

**Skyfrost14: I like the new name. :)**

**Insaneshadowfangirl: Sonic: Stella!**

**Stella: I workin on it! Manic took down the wall around the door so that's a no to just closing the door. Oh! *Runs up and touches floor where door used to be. Teal shield come up* Yes!**

**Manic: I didn't know you could do that.**

**Stella: *Taps heart in thorns necklace* Magic Manic. It's all in the magic ;D**

**Kariko-chan: Maybe that could be punishment for really bad criminals. Stick them in a fanfiction, eventually they'll get tortured or possibly even killed! That sound really bad now that I read this over.**

**Sonic: *Holding new sign that says " R&R please. She'll have some good news when she wakes up. Thx!" **

Sonic was outside in three seconds flat, shortly followed by his siblings and friends. Just as they thought, egghead was outside with a brand new robot. The villains seem to always know how to interrupt anything important.

Eggman was piloting from the top of the robot's beak with the fur on the end of its tail touching the back of the eggmobile. Eggman's new robot was a griffin. That thing with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion but the head, wings, and front talons of an eagle. When would Eggman run out of robot ideas?

The eagle parts of the robot were painted black with red details of different hieroglyphs. That seemed kind of pointless to Sonic. The eyes were empty red sockets that weren't even glowing. The lion parts were an orange-red, the only decal was an oversized eye on its thigh.

To Sonic, this was just a new challenge waiting to become scrap metal. "Hey eggy!" The doctor immedietly turned to the hedgehog, fury and surprise mixed onto his face. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Collecting power of course." He acted like it was obvious, but none of his audience seemed to understand, giving blank looks to the mad doctor. "If you haven't noticed Dark Gaia has reawakened and so has his energy. It's the perfect chance to take power for my Eggman Land."

"Eggman Land?"

"Why do it here?" Sonic really didn't want to deal with this. He was already having a bad day as it was. Chip was nowhere to be found, he had to tell his family that he turned into a huge monster at night, and now this. "It's not like this is the only place where his power is leaking. You're not being very inconspicuous doing it in a highly populated city."

"Perhaps, but this spot is a key escape route for the energy." Seeing the clueless stare he was getting from the hedgehog he simplified it, "This is a 'hot-spot' ,per say, for the energy. Most of his power is flowing into this area."

"Just our luck."

"Hmph. Well," the robot turned its head toward the group, eyes glowing. "If you plan to stop me, than you're going to have to defeat me first."

"Cause that's going to be a problem." Sonic disappeared, becoming a blue streak running toward the robot.

As he came closer to the griffin, the hieroglyphs started to glow a bright red brighter than its eyes. A bright electric field surrounded the machine, shielding it. Sonic's momentum, despite his best efforts to stop, pushed him right into the shield. The hedgehog flew back, skidding to a stop in front of his friends.

"Right. Stay away from the shield." The blue blur hopped up off the ground, slightly charred, and turned back to his opponent. The electric field had disappeared but he knew that it would appear as soon as he made a move. He was going to have to play this a bit more strategically.

"Nice lightshow there doc," time for some stalling and, if he was lucky, information.

"It's much more than a lightshow, Sonic," Bingo, "But I don't need to explain to the likes of you." Aaaaand, lost it.

"What do you mean 'the likes of me'?" Sonic was really only half paying attention. He was constantly scanning the robot for weaknesses. That was the big flaw in his creations, they always had that one spot on them that was their undoing. "Maybe you just don't want me finding something out. Maybe that little lightshow could help me."

The expression said it all. He hit the nail on the head.

"Called it."

"Do you even know how it's supposed to help you?" Sonia whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

"No clue," he answered honestly, "But I'll figure it out."

She didn't say anything in reply but he could see what she was thinking in her eyes. "You're going to get yourself killed, ya know."

The daredevil smirked, giving a wink to his sister as if saying, "Maybe," and raced off in a cloud of dust. Annoying the princess in the process.

"Sonic!"

Instead of going straight toward the robot, this time he ran around it in a circle, searching the symbols on its body. The answer had to be somewhere in that writing, but he had no clue what any of it said.

"Sonic! The top! It's the only place unprotected by the shield!"

Sonic's ears flicked upward at Knuckles's voice. Of course! Knuckles was a treasure hunter! He read more complicated writings than this on a normal basis.

"Yikes!" Okay, so maybe he should focus more on the battle.

Knuckles's yelling what he should do so that Eggman could hear him might not have been the best idea. He still got the message off. Sonic ran up the wall of a nearby building, hoping he didn't startle anyone inside, for the higher ground he needed.

Missiles whizzed by his head as he climbed higher until he was flying up into the sky. The missile to come near him next was quickly turned into an extreme gear as he rode it down at the robot's body.

The deafening explosion ripped through the air along with the screams of promised revenge on the blue hedgehog, but he didn't hear it. He was too busy being flung back through the air, flipping head over heels.

"Sonic!"

"Come on! Let's go!"

* * *

Of course this was how he landed. This was _always_ how he landed.

At the moment, Sonic had his face in the dirt, kicking his legs in an effort to free himself. In front of a windmill. By the ocean.

What was it with this area and face planting with him?

When he did finally pull himself out of the dirt, he sat down next to the hole he had made. His head was still spinning from the trip over here.

"Sonic."

"What?" He could have sworn that was… "Chip?"

His head whipped around, all dizziness gone, searching for the voice. 'Did that come from the windmill?' He had never been inside the windmill, only outside it. Most of the time with his head in the ground.

"Well, got nothin' to lose."

The door creaked loudly as he pushed against the weathered door frame. A strong sent of hay and dust wafted up to greet him. The hay spread out across the floor like a carpet and piled against the walls. Dust hung in the air as he walked through the abandoned windmill. It looked just like he expected most windmills would look. Old and dusty with hay everywhere you looked.

But, to his dismay, he found no signs of Chip. So where did the voice come from?

Sonic sighed as he swept his gaze around the small room. A small ladder caught his eye and, a small sense of curiosity and a small light of hope of finding his friend, climbed up it to find a small balcony with a view that would take any breath away.

To his left showed the bustling town surrounding the university. He could even make out the fountain in front of the school. Little dots moved throughout the twisting streets, a lot of them, as he noticed, heading for his previous battleground.

To the right the ocean glittered a greeting to the blue hedgehog, practically glowing in the light of the lowering sun.

Wait._ Lowering_ sun?

"Crap."

* * *

How could this have happened? Sonic was just coming clean about the past few nights and now he was somewhere on the complete other side of the building. Did Eggman just have some sort of spy drone watching them so he could interrupt at the worst times possible or something?

"I hope he's okay." Sonia thought he would get himself killed, but she didn't mean it! Since when did Sonic the Hedgehog die so easily?

"He's fine Sonia," Tails reassured her, "He's been through worst then this."

He knew he was right; he came out of birthday parties more threatening than that! But still, he couldn't help but feel worried. Who knew where he had landed.

'And this is normal for him,' he thought as he looked up at the sky.

The sun glared in his eyes, as if trying to warn him of something. And he figured out the warning when he noticed the placement of the sun.

"Hey guys," his voice wasn't very loud, but the way he said it made it feel like he might have been slightly panicking inside, "Sonic might be in a… weird position when we find him, and not because he just got hurled across town."

"This had something to do with his weird behavior, doesn't it?"

Tails slowly nodded to the pink hedgehog, giving a small, sad smile.

'From the position of the sun I'd say we have maybe an hour before sunset,' the fox calculated, 'Hope we find his before then. It'll give him the chance to explain before they actually see him in all his wolfy glory.'

And then it clicked. Where did he always land when he was falling in Spagonia? "Guys! I think I know where he landed! Come on!"

"Hey! Wait up Tails!"

* * *

The view really was great up here. It was calm and peaceful. Even the breeze seemed quiet as it pulled against his quills. He would have to come up here more often.

His friends were probably already on their way, so he had decided to chill until they came. And if he had to wait, he didn't mind waiting here. This place carried some good memories for him. Meeting Chip for the first time being on top. Even if he had thought the blue hero was a monster at first.

Sonic leaned back, staring at the sea, turned orange from the setting sun.

"We'll find ya, Chip. Just you wait."


	10. Reach the Goal

**Early update! Yay! Unfortunately it's to deliver some bad news. I won't be able to update for a while. I have a lot of trips this month but I'll try my best to give you regular updates. :)**

**It took me 10 chapters to put in a song. Geez! Anyway, it's one that not everyone will know since it's not from the games or anything, but it still is a Sonic themed song. It's by Danny Alv. and was suggested by iamthedoctor480. Look it up on youtube and listen while you read! It's great!**

**Eggman hater: Stella: I know you made him drink that draught of peace but I'm gonna slap him again. Just to make sure. *Slaps him***

**Sonic: Ow!**

**Stella: *Satisfied grin***

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: For pete's sake. *Gets communicator out* Shadow! Come in!**

**Shadow: What?**

**Stella: Bring your guns! We have mutants on the loose that better not be bullet proof or you can use them on Insane.**

**Shadow: It's probably better I not ask. On my way.**

Tails was starting to get anxious. The sun was still setting; it would be dark any minute. How far was it to that windmill?

The sound of a guitar being played soon answered his question. "Hear that? We're almost there!"

He just hoped they could make it in time. The sun was barely above the water, they had minutes until Sonic would transform.

'Man we're cuttin' it close.'

* * *

Sonic leaned back as he sat on the balcony, gently strumming his guitar.

"A broken path is in front of me

But still I carry on

A path of smoke is what I will leave behind

You better catch me before I'm gone

The noises drown as I blast through the wind

That guides me as I go

This is what I do and

This is who I am

It's time to rock n' roll!"

"But the path is long as it twists and bends

And I cannot see my goal

But I see a golden glint at the end

And it calls my very soul!"

At this point, the guitarist had attracted a crowd unbeknownst to him.

"So I'll run ahead at supersonic speed

My very self is who I'll lead

I'll never give up

I'll find a way through as I try to follow and pursue what's true"

"The world around me just speeds by my eyes

As I follow the wind with speed

I'll never let myself be misled by lies

As I follow under its lead"

"But the storms in the sky

Try to darken the light

And I cannot see my goal

But a golden glint on the road's in my sight

And it calls my very soul"

The group down below simply stayed silent as he sang, enjoying the song.

"So I'll run ahead and go with all my speed

My very self is who I'll lead

I'll never turn back

There's nothing to fear

Cause the end of this road is very near

I'll run ahead at supersonic speed

Myself is who I'll lead

I'll never give up

I'll find a way through

And I'll make it to the end and start anew"

Sonic turned quiet as he let the sound of his guitar rang through the air.

"I'll blast through this world all my speed

There's nothing in this world that will stop my feet

I'll dash through it all

I'll roll and won't crawl

Though the road is shattered

I will never fall

I'll run ahead at supersonic speed

My very self is who I'll lead

Through the old and the new

I'll always stay true

As the same old me will still be blue"

"It's in my heart

It's in my soul

And I'll give my all to reach the goal!"

"Nice song bro!"

"Gah!" said bro fell back in surprise at Manic's call, falling into the windmill.

"Nice job Manic." Sonia scolded her brother, "Come on. Let's go get him."

"Right." He replied sheepishly.

The two ran around the side of the building to get to the door, "Ya know, it's gonna be pretty dark in there without the sun."

"Huh?" Tails spun to the ocean and, sure enough, the sun had completely disappeared underneath the sea line. "Uh oh!"

* * *

The last thing Sonia and Manic expected when they walked in was a giant wolf thing. It seemed to have its head in some of the hay, like it had fallen.

But where was Sonic? Did this thing do something to him?

Sonia eyed a broom nearby, ready in case it turn hostile.

"Guys wait!" Tails rushed in so fast he was simply a blur, sending up hay behind him. He stopped in between the two hedgehogs and the creature. "Don't attack! It's Sonic!"

"What?"

As if his words were made of ice, the two froze at hearing them. This thing was Sonic? But how?

"Not exactly the way I was hoping you'd find out." That voice was gruff, but they heard it. They heard their brother. It was definitely him. How he had gotten himself into that situation though, they didn't know. "Sorry guys, I just wasn't sure how you guy would react."

Sonia grabbed the broom and stormed over to the werehog, shoving Tails our of the way in the process and proceeded to whack Sonic of the head with it as hard as she could. "Sonic Hedgehog!"

"Ow!"

"That's no excuse!" the werehog physically flinched at her yelling, "We're your siblings! We would understand!"

"I actually was going to tell you," Sonic tried to reason, "But Eggman sort of interrupted me."

"Alright then wolfy," both his brother and sister moved behind him and started pushing him toward the door, "Come on. It's time for you to start explaining."

"Wha-?"

The two simply laughed as they continued to shove him outside. Tails released a sigh of relief as he followed the group. That went a lot better than he had expected.

When they broke out into the night however, Sonic stopped, his ears twitching.

Manic ran in front with a worried look adorning his face, "What's wrong, Sonic?"

Instead of answering his brother's question directly to him, he turned to Tails and Knuckles, "You didn't hear it? I heard- I heard Chip."

"Chip?" Tails's tails fluffed to twice their original size, "Are you sure?"

"Completely."

"Where?" the surprise was showing on even Knuckles. He kept his normal pose of his arms being crossed across his chest, but he was tense and his pupils seemed smaller.

"I'm not entirely sure." Sonic admitted, "It happened earlier too. I thought it was coming from the windmill but when I went in there was nothing there. Maybe-"

"Wait," Sonia interrupted, holding up her hand to silence the speaker, "What?"

"Let's just explain when we get back to the university." Tails suggested.

"Alright." Sonia didn't seem too excited about waiting, but she had more patience than Sonic so she could wait.

"Let's get goin' then." Sonic ran ahead, on all fours. Followed by his friends and family laughing and yelling at him to wait.

But there was another watching them. A shadow in the bushes. Though it wasn't a creature of Dark Gaia. It did not attack, simply observed. Three in particular.

And as they left, the figure disappeared into the night, leaving no trace behind him. None knowing of its presence.


	11. The strange nightmare

**Yay! I'm back! I have actually been able to write! I'm so happy. If I had been able to write during the car trips I would have had a lot more to give you guys, but we're still fixing my laptop. Started of with one key not working and when Mom wants to fix it they all go away. *Shrugs* At least she tried. Enjoy the chapter!**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: *Tries to laugh while earth is shaking violently***

**iamthedoctor: Your welcome! :3**

**werewolf99: There was only one figure**

**Eggman hater: Stella: Do you think the broom would leave a bald spot or something if she hit him enough times?**

**Sonic: -_-**

**TeamChaosHunters: I was in a bit of a rush in the chapter so I could tell you guys I wasn't going to be around so the reactions weren't as explosive. But I still got Sonia to hit Sonic with a broom! :D And to the chapter 9 review (totally don't mind that it was late) He always faceplants ;P EXTREME! gear. Don't know why. Just felt like it.**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: Crap! ok, I know what to do. Shadow blast them off of Sonic. ****_Without hitting him._**** I'll be right back! *Chaos controls***

**Shadow:*Shoots mutants off Sonic almost hitting him***

**Sonic: She said ****_Don't _****hit me. *gets up* where did she-**

**Stella: *teleports right in front of him* I have the ultimate weapon! *Holds up Sonic 06 game* Be gone!**

**Mutants: *Run away scared to hide in a hole and never come out***

The explanation was long and by the end of it they were all ready to pass out. Getting through the gaia temples, Eggman's earth shattering machine, and both Gaias plus all the questions in between made the conversation almost three hours long. By the end though, Sonia and Manic understood enough to know what kind of mess they were in.

"So, you haven't found Chip anywhere?" Sonia asked. She had been the one with the most questions during the story. It was like she was rerunning the adventure through her head but had to add the details. She even flinched at the image of Sonic trapped in Eggman's machine, turning into the werehog for the first time.

"Nowhere." Sonic answered in his gruff tone of voice. "He should be here though. I just don't get it!"

"Relax, Sonic. We'll find him," his best friend reassured him.

"What about the temple where he got his memory back?"

All heads turned to the green hedgehog as he spoke. "I mean, maybe since his memory is there, that's where Chip was sent. You said that he was sucked into some kind of mural when he regained his memory, so what if he's trapped in there?"

"That actually sounds possible. Since his memories teleported there instead of some other temple, that might be where he comes into this world every thousand years." Tails reasoned, "Sonic, which temple was it that he gained his memories?"

"Uh," the werehog looked to the ceiling, racking his brain for the memories, "The one in Adabat I think."

"Great! We can head out in the morning."

"Right. For now," Sonic released a huge yawn, his mouth becoming half the size of his head, "I'm hittin' the hay. Night guys."

Sonia hopped up from her seat. "Night fuzzy." She patted her larger brother on the head, having to get up on her toes to reach, then headed out for bed.

"Oh boy."

Manic simply stood laughing next to him along with everyone else in the room.

After everyone had wished the other good night they all headed to their assigned rooms. Sonic heading to the one he had slept in earlier.

Sonic stopped in front of the door once again. Hearing a familiar voice.

"Don't think you can escape me vessel. Even with the light around you, the dark is already inside you."

Sonic whipped his head around the corridor searching for the voice. It was the same one he had heard the first time he came to sleep. Did he just get a haunted room or something?

Cautiously he entered the room, checking to make sure there weren't any unwanted shadows hiding in the darkness of the room. If that voice was back then did that mean…

"This'll be a fun night."

And it was. Nightmares once again haunted his sleep. Except this time, they seemed kinda random.

It started off with him running through green hill as his normal blue self. The green grass, the rolling hills, everything seemed normal. Then it took a turn.

The sky turned black and the tranquil blue waters turned red. He stopped running as he saw dead animals with the guts ripped out of them, staining the earth red. In the distance he could have sworn he heard a voice say "I am god." And that voice sounded like his.

Before he could investigate, the ground beneath his dissolved and he fell. And fell. And fell. When he landed, a single spotlight was placed on him. He slowly stood up and looked out into the darkness.

"Sonic."

He spun around toward the voice. There was something definitely familiar about that voice.

"Mom?"

He could barely see the outline of his mother against the darkness. And there was someone next to her. His outline was darker, so you couldn't see any distinctive features on him. He was a man of shadows. But he knew one thing. He was holding hands with Aleena.

He took a step forward but as soon as his foot touched the ground, the figures melted into the ground and came toward him like snakes. They didn't have any color. They were black with the rest of the surroundings. Was color even possible here?

The snakes of shadow slithered up his body, eventually blinding him. One of them seemed to whisper into his ear.

"Come home little werehog."

When the darkness broke he was in front of a lake being rained upon by cherry blossoms. Light streaming through the leaves.

"Sonic?"

Another voice behind him. Except, this one he didn't know. At least he was pretty sure he didn't know.

He turned to the voice to see a beautiful girl with bright red hair with feathers pined into it. She was wearing a light white dress and matching white gloves reaching past her elbows. Her dark tan, almost orange, leggings gave the illusion of her legs being complete tan apart from the rest of her pale skin.

"Are you okay?"

"Um" he was starting to get a bad feeling about this. He couldn't figure out why though. This all seemed perfectly harmless. "Yeah. I'm fine." Might as well play along.

The girl nodded, satisfied with his answer. She walked past him and gazed out into the lake, "You know, this adventure had been a lot of fun. Although also frightening beyond belief, I've been able to be something I've never been able to be before." She turned back around the Sonic, "Instead of her royal majesty, Princess Elise, I've been Elise. A girl. And I can't thank you enough for that."

Adventure? Elise? What is this girl talking about?

He tried to say something but stopped when his vision turned black and he felt a stabbing pain in his chest that probably should have killed him. He screamed in pain but nothing came out. He fell to the floor, holding his chest.

"Come home little werehog. Come back to the dark."

He bolted up in the bed, sheets tangled at his feet and in a cold sweat. Panting, he looked down at himself. He was normal again, so it had to be morning. Untangling the cloth around his feet, Sonic got out of the bed and walked out of the room. Not sure if he was still in the dream, he peaked out of the door at first and, seeing no danger, walked into the hallway.

He gazed out the window to see the sun barely above the horizon. It must have been early in the morning.

Knowing he wasn't going to get back to sleep, he went out to run. Running always cleared his mind. And he would have to do a lot of running to clear his head now.

Taking off to who knows where, one question seemed to pop up among all the others clouding his mind.

"What the heck was that about?"


	12. To the temple

**Was' up! New Chapter! Yeah, I don't have much to say here. Enjoy!**

**(I love how almost every review mentions the 06 reference ;P)**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: He's not even the one who brought it in...**

**Sonic: Let's not tell her that. *Leans over to look at game* What is that anyway.**

**Stella: Nothing you need to be concerned about. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to burn this now.**

**Sonic: ?**

**TeamChaosHunters: Elfen Lied! Awesome anime! Otaku nerding aside, After I read the first sentence I started giggling like an idiot and got a weird look from my dad. And you're welcome with the Adabat thing. Thank goggle! Oh. And there is no purpose for Elise in this story. I was just putting in random stuff. XD Your gravity theory sounds very plausible too. And I hope your evil hype has pass or else we are all doomed. ;)**

**Eggman hater: How in chaos are you so good at guessing!? I will not say which part but you did guess something right. I can tell you though that Gaia is NOT related to Sonic in ****_any way. _****And yay! S rank!**

**SkyeTheHedgefox: Stella: Slowly back away. *Backs out of room with Sonic***

When Sonic came back all his friends were waiting outside for him. It was still pretty early so he guessed they hadn't been waiting long.

He still hadn't gotten everything out of his head from the night, but he had cleared enough of it to put on his normal cocky smirk. "Hey, guys. Ready to go?"

"Yep," Manic hopped up from the stairs where he had been sitting, "Where were you off to?"

"Nowhere special." He didn't want to bring up the nightmare. He couldn't even understand it. His friend probably had less of a chance. "Come on. Let's get movin'."

He turned around and started walking to the other side of town where the tornado had been parked. Sonic was of course going to run but still wanted to walk with them to the tornado. Especially since Manic was going to be riding on the wings for the first time. The first takeoff is usually pretty funny as he'd seen with Amy and the others. He was going to get some good teasing out of this.

Tails ran up to walk beside him. "So, do you think he might really be in the temple?"

"I don't know Buddy, but it's the only lead we've got."

Then he remembered something. When the voice had spoken to him before he went to bed it had said "even if he was covered in light." Where they on the right track? The voice certainly thought so.

But _really_ what should have been worrying him were the "Don't think you've escaped me" or "the dark is already inside you" parts. But Sonic never thought of himself much. He was always focused on his friends and family. Whether that was strength or weakness was yet to be discovered.

"So, uh. I just hang on really tight right?" Manic was on top of the plane's wings looking down at his brother.

"Yeah. Eventually you might feel more comfortable standing."

"But, how do you stay on?" Manic asked, slightly nervous.

"I don't know. I just do."

"Not helpful bro."

"Oh for- Just chill Manic." Their sister called from her seat behind Tails.

"She's right," Knuckles added beside him. "You've don't a lot scarier stuff then this."

Manic's anxious expression did not change. "Yeah but…"

"But what?"

"It seems kinda anticlimactic. The prince of Mobious, prophesized to overthrow Robotnick, and top class thief died from becoming a _pancake_."

Sonic had to cover his mouth from bursting out in laughter which didn't really help the situation.

"Don't worry Manic." Tails reassured him, "Even if you do fall off I'll catch you long before you turn into a green pancake."

Sonic couldn't hold it in anymore. He started laughing so hard that he fell on the ground.

"Thanks for the support."

"Let's go before Sonic turns into sir fluff again shall we?" Sonia spoke up while her brother continued laughing on the ground.

"I agree. So Sonic, unless you want to be run over during take off, you might want to move." The engine started up.

Sonic had calmed to quietly giggling and ,ignoring Manic's glare at him, moved upon Tails's suggestion.

"Meet ya at the temple!" With that he took off with a trail of dust following behind.

"Alright then. Everything is set for takeoff. Ready Manic?" The hedgehog gave a shaky nod to the young pilot, "Then it's time for take off!"

On the last words the Tornando lurched forward, gaining the speed necessary to take flight. Manic clutched the wing just a tad tighter as he felt the movement.

When the plane parted from the ground, even Sonic could hear the yell.

The run could have taken minutes if Sonic had run at full speed, but he didn't. He liked watching the scenery as he ran through it. After about ten minutes though, his mind wandered away from his settings and went on to other things.

He thought about the first time he ran through these different areas, turning into the werehog again, but among everything else, he thought of the mysterious voice and something it had shown him in his dream. He _thought_ that the voice was causing the nightmares anyway.

That shadowy figure who was holding Aleena's hand.

Who was that? Why was he holding Mom's hand? Wait a minute. That couldn't be… Could it?

He brought his communicator to his mouth quickly. "You guys read me?"

Tails's voice came fussily through the watch, "We read you, Sonic. What's up?"

"I actually need to ask Sonia something. Can you hear me sis?"

He heard a noise of surprise from the other end then, "I can hear you."

"So can I!" came a loud and slightly panicked voice.

"Heh. Having fun Manic?"

"Not funny Knuckles!"

"Anyway," Sonic interrupted, "Do you know anything about…" he hesitated, "About our dad?"

There was silence for several moments after the question followed by a "What?"

"Well," this ended up much more awkward than he intended it to be, "We know what happened to our mother (even if we don't where she is), but we don't know anything about our dad. The Oracle didn't even mention anything about him."

"I… don't know." Sonia seemed to be just now realizing the fact of their also missing father. They had been so focused on finding their mom that they hadn't even thought about it. "What brought that up?" If she didn't think about how had Sonic come across it?

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"You can do that?"

"Hey!"

The laughing went through both ends as they all giggled at Sonia's teasing.

"Thanks for the compliment sis!" Sonic said as the laughs settled, "See you slow pokes at the temple!"

He sped up to supersonic speed, creating a sonic boom that could be heard from the plane not far behind him. Until now.

"Show off."

When they did arrive at their destination they found Sonic lounging on the stairs taking a nap.

At the sound of the propellers though he opened one eye and stretched his arms behind his head before opening them completely. "Hey guys. Finally here, huh?"

"Said it once I'll say it again. Show off."

"Thank you." The blue showoff walked over to the plane where his brother was still sitting on the wings. "You okay up there bro?"

"Uh… yeah. Just catching my breath."

"Heh." Sonic jumped up next to the green hedgehog. "You'll get used to it."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Faster than you think too. I remember Amy's first time she lost her voice for the rest of the day." He took Manic's snort of laughter as a sign to continue, "She had to play charades whenever she tried to tell us something. I got hammered a couple of times 'cause of my guesses." Manic chuckled as quietly as he could but, of course, that wasn't very quiet. "She's gonna kill me now that I told ya'."

"As long as you don't say anything about my take off squeal I won't say anything about Amy's day of charade."

"Dang it! I was going to use that." The two boys cracked up. Sonic even pushed Manic off while he wasn't paying attention.

"Hey!"

Sonic dived down and wrestled with his brother, tossing around in the dirt. They often came close to running into trees. When they finally finished their rumble both fell next to each other panting.

"Tie?"

"Tie."

Sonia stood over the two, rolling her eyes, "Boys."

"Yeah yeah." Sonic grabbed his sister's hand and started pulling her towards the stairs. Stopping in front of the building he held his arms out in the direction of the building. "Sisters first."

She wasn't amused. "Aren't there spider webs and dust and booby traps and- ew!" the thought of her covered in dirt and webs did not seem appealing to her.

Sonic chuckled at the pampered princess's paranoia, "Chill. There isn't anything like that in there. I should know."

She sighed, but still turned toward the door, "Alright then. Let's do it-"

The "To it" was cut off from a strange noise inside the temple.

"Uh. Is there anything you forgot to tell us about, Sonic?" Sonia asked as she materialized her laser gun from her medallion.

"No."Sonic replied, suddenly serious, "The place was completely empty when I came through here."

"We better be on our guard then." Knuckles commented, coming up beside Sonia.

"Right." Tails and Manic had also come up next to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog looked down the line of his friends and family, glad to have the back up of his loved ones.

"All right gang. Time to do it to it."


	13. Borrowing

**Greetings! I have newness. Autocorrect is not changing that. Newness is a word?! Where in chaos is my dictionary. Wait... Google. Give me a minute. Or an update. Just let me look it up.**

**Eggman hater: You are Magic! I was hoping people would find that part funny. :3**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella: Oh my chaos. Let me call up Ash.**

**Sonic: How is she that fast?! **

After that outburst from within, the temple seemed eerie in its silence. The fact that no one was talking didn't help.

Sonic decided to break the eerie wall, "This place is bigger than I remember."

"Oh yeah?" Manic responded, glad for the distraction.

"Definitely." He continued, "It may just be that I haven't been here in awhile, but I could have sworn that this hall wasn't this long."

"Eh, you're just imagining it," Knuckles called from the back of the group, "Although it is kinda long. What's the point in that?"

"Maybe they're supposed to roll out the red carpet for us." Sonic joked with his usual mischievous grin, earning laughs from the entire group.

He knew that it had been this long before.

"Hey! I think I see the mural!" Manic pointed forward then dashed of ahead of the others.

"Heh. Wait for us bro!" Sonic rushed in pursuit of the excited hedgehog, excitement building in his own chest, and was soon followed by his friends.

They slowed as they saw the full view.

In the middle stood the pillar with stairs going up either side of it; the large mural depicting Chip and Dark Gaia behind it.

"Well, this is it." No one moved. They just stared at the mural in awe. "Now what?"

Sonic left the lineup, slowly walking up the stairs. He reached into his quills and pulled out a gray bracelet with a green orb attached. He looked from the wall to the bracelet and back to the mural. "Maybe…"

"Sonic. What are you about to do?" Tails asked.

His answer didn't come from words, but from Sonic placing the item in the pillar, where it started to glow. Everyone but Tails took a step back, alarmed. Tails however did step back when the mural started glowing as well.

The light continued to grow until they had to hold up their hand to protect their eyes from the blinding light. When it died down everyone cautiously lowered the hands and froze.

In the middle of the portrait, floated a certain burgundy creature; curled up with his eyes closed.

"Chip!"

The small fluff ball fluttered his eyes open at the call, a grin spreading on his face as he saw the hedgehog. "Sonic? Sonic!"

Just as he was about to fly over the room shook as another roar filled the room.

They all folded their ears down against their heads and looked around the room for the source. Sonic fell down the stairs from the shaking it caused.

He sat up on his elbows at the bottom, his ears down like the others. They flipped up however, when he heard a certain voice. "To the darkness."

Dark tentacles shot out of the floor around him. "What?"

"Don't worry boy. We're just borrowing you."

"Borrowing me?"

"Sonic, what's happening?"

Sonic turned to Tails, who was scanning the area around him to find a way to the hedgehog, "I don't know buddy. Some weird voice said it needed to 'borrow' me."

"Borrow?"

"I don't get it either," he yelled as more black tentacles rose up between them, "We'll talk about it when I get back to you guys. Which I will." He could tell the fox was starting to panic slightly. It was like reliving the Randell situation again. "Ya know, I'm getting caught way too much lately. I should really cut that out."

He heard the chuckle through the dark wall. He could always do that. Make people laugh in any situation.

But that chuckle was the last thing he heard from that temple before the dark completely surrounded him.

* * *

Just as Sonic was blocked from view the dark surrounding him vanished, along with Sonic.

Manic put a hand on Tails's shoulder, "You alright?"

The fox nodded, head looking straight ahead and no emotion showing in his eyes.

"Uh, what just happened?"

Tails ran up to the entity when he spoke, "Chip! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but…" Chip pointed to the area where the dark had taken Sonic.

The young kit nodded, the worry now appearing on his face, "I know. What was that?"

"Dark Gaia."

"Huh?"

"I could sense it. That was Dark Gaia. Or at least one of his minions." He sounded completely sure of himself. "I'm just wondering why." He hung his head down so that it almost touched his chest.

"He'll be fine, Chip." Tails reassured him, "He's been through lots worse." The small creature gave him a small smile, "Here," Tails pulled out a chocolate bar out of what seemed like nowhere, "I grabbed some chocolate for you before we left."

"Awesome! I'm starving!" He was back to normal. He took the chocolate and it was then that he noticed the spectators at the bottom of the stairs. "Um, hi?"

Tails gave a short laugh before introducing everyone, "Chip, this is our friend Knuckles and Sonic's siblings, Sonia and Manic."

"Sonic has siblings?"

"Oh, it gets crazier."

* * *

Sonic was starting to get annoyed. Everything was pitch dark and who knew how long he had been standing there. He knew he was awake. At some point he had pinched himself to make sure. So he was definitely awake.

Now he started reverting to yelling, "Yo! Anybody home?"

Nothing.

"It's starting to get pretty boring in here."

Nothing.

"I got friends I need to get back to, so if I'm just going to be standing around in darkness this entire time I think I'll just leave."

Nothing.

He sighed. He knew he couldn't leave. He had tried several times. He never seemed to go anywhere. "Great. Now what?"

"My, my. Aren't you impatient."

"Oh. Now you respond."

"Excuse me, I was making the preparations and just couldn't get to you."

Preparations? "Yeah? Well now that you're here, think you could give me some info here?"

"Of course. Calm yourself." A low growl from the hedgehog, but he stayed silent, "We simply need the power in you, Vessel."

"The name's Sonic. And what do you mean-?" it clicked, "Do you mean my werehog form? Are you the ones who have been giving me these nightmares?"

"Bingo."

On that word, four bright beams of light came arching out of the darkness directly toward Sonic.

* * *

Chip sat on top of Tails's head as they entered the university. Normally he would sit on Sonic's head but… well you know.

A small chocolate crumb fell onto the fox's nose that he blew off, "Watch the crumbs up there." He addressed the godly entity warmly.

"Sorry 'bout that." Chip apologized with a chocolate covered grin.

"Do all boys eat have to eat like that?" Sonia complained with fake annoyance.

"Yep." Replied all boys present simultaneously, then broke out into laughter.

Even Sonia snickered a bit. Though the air had lifted since they left, they all had the situation nagging at their brains. Sonic was definitely in better condition than the last time he was kidnapped, it was by a being much more powerful.

"Professor Pickle?" Tails knocked on the door as he entered.

"Ah, Tails. I see you're back. And with Chip! Welcome back." The professor was sitting in an armchair with a plate of cucumber sandwiches next to him. "I've made sandwiches for you for your return. But where's Sonic?"

Tails's ears folded down and Chip put a hand on his head in front of were he was sitting in support. "Dark Gaia took him."

"Oh dear. Perhaps you should tell me what happened."

* * *

The beams hit him and forced him down in pain. His body started to shake as the pain shot through his system. A scream escaped his mouth as he squirmed on the ground. It felt like his very being was being pulled out of him but also like something was being shoved into him at the same time.

"Be careful! If you take too much he'll die and this whole procedure will be ruined!"

He could barely hear what they were saying and he really didn't care at the moment.

All that he could think about was the pain coursing through him. It was like when Eggman had stolen the power of the chaos emeralds from him and Dark Gaia taking back its power combined.

Then, it stopped. The beams disappeared and everything was quiet. The pain was still there but it wasn't as bad as before. He wanted to get up; he tried as hard as he could. He failed. His energy was gone.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"_Cooperation_." Sonic mimicked sarcastically.

If the voice had heard him it decided to ignore him, "Now that we have what we need you can go."

"Huh?"

"I did say we had to _borrow_ you. I did not plan to keep you here, Vessel. That would simply be a waste of energy and time. So I bid you adieu. See you later."

The darkness vanished around him and he fell. He looked out to the landscape as he fell and realized his vision was blurry. It was hard to tell in the pitch darkness he had been trapped in previously. Everything was a fuzzy white and blue picture.

When he landed, he didn't feel very much. Just a lot of cold before he the white turned to black once again.


End file.
